Let's face it, shooting and editing events like our kids' plays, concerts, and so forth is usually a no-win situation. Either you sit in the back, shoot the entire area, and get few, if any, relevant close-ups, or you chase the action across the screen and risk making your viewing audience nauseous.

Here's a better idea: If you've bought a second camcorder or can double up with a buddy, you can shoot the event with two camcorders and edit the two sources into a cohesive video that shows both the big picture and stable close-ups. You won't need an expensive video editor, just one that can handle multiple video tracks, such as Adobe Premiere Elements or Pinnacle Studio Plus (see our reviews at https://go.pcmag.com/videoeditors).

It all starts with the shoot. You'll want to ensure that you capture at least one good copy of the entire event, so place one camcorder in the back and record the whole program from start to finish. Since this camera won't move during the event, you can leave it unattended, though posting someone nearby to prevent accidental jostling is a good idea.

Put the second camera up front, usually to the extreme right or left of the stage to avoid blocking the audience's view. This camera will follow the action closely, and you can really benefit from using a fluid-head tripod with it.

Audio quality is always key, so factor that into your camera placement strategy. Connecting to the output of the auditorium or theater's sound system is best, but that isn't always possible. An alternative is to position one camera near the speakers.

To help synchronize the two video feeds during editing, bring a flash camera and shoot several pictures with the flash at the start. To maintain sync, shoot from start to finish with both cameras without stopping. You can change the location of the front camera in midstream, but keep it rolling. Otherwise, you'll have to resynchronize the stream each time the camera starts.

Editing is simpler than you may think. Capture the clips as usual in the editor of your choicewe used Adobe Premiere Elements. Sync the streams by marking each clip "in" at the same time in the event. So if you used the flash technique described above, you'd mark each clip in on the frame that showed the flash. If you didn't, find a distinctive event that's visible in both videos, usually something like the pre-event announcer moving her hands or walking onto the stage. If all else fails, once both tracks are on the timeline, you sync them using the audio waveforms from each video clip. For example, a loud noise like the first clap of applause will create an obvious spike in the waveform. Drag the clips so that the spikes line up, and you'll be synchronized.

When dragging the clips to the timeline, place the clip shot from the back camera on the bottom track (labeled Video 1 on your screen), and put the clip shot from the front camera on the next track up (Video 2). Generally, you will use the front video whenever possible, since it is likely to contain the best images. As you proceed to scroll though the timeline, delete all suboptimal shots from the front videoshots where the camera motion was too fast or jerky, or the image was poorly focused or framed. When you delete these segments, the back-camera video shows through.

In Premiere Elements, start by unlinking the audio and video tracks from the front camera by clicking Video 2, right-clicking, and choosing Unlink Audio and Video. If you don't need the audio from the front camera, touch Audio 2, right-click, and choose Clear to delete that audio track. Otherwise, unlink and clear the audio track from the back camera.

Start all your scenes with a shot from the back (Video 1) to provide the big-picture perspective. Clear the first segment on Video 2 by dragging the edit line to about four or five seconds in, clicking the Razor icon, and then clicking on the edit line in order to split the video. Then click the Selection tool icon, touch the first clip on Video 2, right-click, and choose Clear. Don't select Delete and Close Gap or click the Delete key, as these options will shift the video to the left and close the gap, obscuring the background video and destroying the synchronization between the front video and the audio track. Work your way through the video, clearing footage from the front camera and exposing the background video.

For extra polish, drag a dissolve transition to the start and end of each front-video segment on Video 2. Then render as usual, and you'll have produced your first two-camera shoot. Now you'll see home video as never before, with a variety of shots that'll keep viewers at the edge of their chairs.

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